Booked (and Printed): January 2026

 

Booked (and Printed) January 2026   Wowzers, January was frigid! If the mercury inched above freezing it was a fleeting affair. The negative temps piled up as quickly as my firewood dwindled. Although it made for a perfect reading month. And I did okay with four books, a solitary short story, and two philosophical essays by the brilliant Bertrand Russell. But my left eye is still a roadblock: I can’t read for as long as I once did and my reading speed has suffered, too. But let’s stop with the whining and get to what I did read. The month started with Michael Richards’s fabulous memoir, ENTRANCES AND EXITS (2024). Richards, of course, is best known for his unforgettable performance as Cosmo Kramer on that most ’90s of the 1990s television scene, Seinfeld. Richards doesn’t mire his story with name-dropping or “look how brilliant I am” vignettes. Instead, he reveals himself as a flawed introvert seeking redemption and understanding—his understanding about himself and this life we all share. Entrances and Exits is exactly how a memoir should be written: with thoughtfulness and truth. Next up was another memoir, THE PULP JUNGLE, by Frank Gruber (1967). Gruber made a living, and I’m guessing a good living, writing for the pulps in the 1930s and early-1940s before moving to Hollywood. IMDb shows an impressive 55 writing credits, mostly for television, between 1939 and 1968. In The Pulp Jungle, he (mostly) discusses his early years breaking into the pulps, including moving to New York City with the ambition of writing fiction for a living. Gruber succeeded, but the journey was harrowing. There are stories about Steve Fisher—perhaps Gruber’s best friend—Frederick Faust, aka Max Brand, who he worked with in Hollywood, and a bunch of others, too. The Pulp Jungle is a solid memoir with enough inside dope to interest anyone interested in the pulps.

DOWN INTO THE SEA, by Dan Franklin (2024), is an uneven horror novella with a rich atmosphere and a flawed plot. Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross’s life is a mess. His mother is an addict. His father is in prison. And Eric is bullied at school and looking for an escape. That escape arrives as a mermaid swimming under the pier of his small Massachusetts hometown. But everything crashes when people start dying. I didn’t love Down Into the Sea, but it showed enough life that I’ll likely try another of Franklin’s tales sometime soon. January ended with Robert J. Ray’s first (of seven) Matt Murdock mystery, BLOODY MURDOCK (1986). This was my third reading of Bloody Murdock and it’s a book I’m a tad sentimental about since I first read it over Christmas break as a middle schooler. It begins with Murdock taking a bodyguard gig, but it quickly turns into a murder investigation after his client awkwardly dies. I had fun from the first page to the last. Murdock is a P.I. with a dash of 20th Century men’s adventure thrown in for good measure. It was also my introduction to the private eye form. With a little luck I’ll read it again in ten or fifteen years. As for those two Bertrand Russell essays. The first is “WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN” (1927), and the second is “HAS RELIGION MADE USEFUL CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION?” (1930). In both, Russell makes a compelling argument about, mostly, Christianity’s lack of morality. His argument is supported with evidence from the Bible and the historical record. Whether you agree with Russell’s conclusions, his work—including these two essays—is always thoughtful, succinct, and worthwhile. My solitary foray into the world of short fiction, “THE WATER HOLE,” by Jim Kjelgaard (1954 / Bluebook), is a short-short about life and death at a water hole. As usual, Kjelgaard captures the animals as they are rather than imbuing them with human traits. And I liked this one a bunch. As for my favorite book of the month? It is, absolutely, Entrances and Exits. Fin— Now on to next month.